Foreign Minister Joseph Wu has sharply criticized the United Nations in a global press release ahead of the UN General Assembly in September

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – In a global press release statement, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has railed at the United Nations, and heavily criticized the international organization for their negligence and their exclusion of Taiwan from crucial World Health Organization (WHO) programs.

In a statement prepared for release ahead of the 73rd annual session of the U.N. General Assembly, which will begin on Sept. 18 in NYC, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu has accused the U.N. of being responsible for the direct “violation of the fundamental human rights of Taiwan’s 23 million people.”

The Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office in Manila released a copy of the MOFA statement over the weekend in the Philippines, according to the Manila Bulletin.

Wu calls Taiwan a “willing and able partner” and that by excluding Taiwan and being complicit in Taiwan’s isolation from the international community of nations, Wu argues that the organization “violates the principle of universality upon which the U.N. was founded and deprives Taiwan as well as the international community of opportunities to work together for the common good.”

The theme of the upcoming session of the U.N. General Assembly is “Making the United Nations Relevant to All People: Global Leadership and Shared Responsibilities for Peaceful, Equitable, and Sustainable Societies.”

By neglecting the health of Taiwan’s 23 million citizens, it would seem that the U.N. is contravening its own stated goals of making the United Nations relevant to all people, and is failing to act in a manner commensurate with its own expectations for “global leadership.”

“To ensure the UN remains relevant to all people, the organization should stand up to external pressures and open its doors to Taiwan,” MOFA states.

Wu remarks that Taiwan has consistently sought to abide by the regulations and expectations to which U.N. holds its member states, and that Taiwan continues to act as a “responsible stakeholder” in that regard.

Yet, the U.N. influenced solely by the authoritarian government in Beijing consistently refuses to acknowledge Taiwan’s commitments and its efforts to promote good health practices, and sustainable development at home and throughout the region.

Joseph Wu also declares that “the concrete results we have achieved include alleviating poverty, zero hunger, reducing the percentage of low-income households to under 2 percent, cutting the maternal mortality rate to just 11.6 per 100,000 people and under-five child mortality rate to just 2.4 per 1,000, and improving our literacy rate to 98.7 percent. All of these are well above U.N. SDG standards.”

Wu also directly criticizes the U.N.’s refusal to allow Taiwanese journalists to cover the organization’s events, and also for continuously forbidding Taiwanese citizens, including experts in their field, from entering U.N. buildings or observing U.N. events, reports the Manila Bulletin.

The scathing criticism of the U.N. by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs represents a very different approach to treating with the international organization compared to years' past.

The strongly worded statement, which is likely to be released by TECO offices and Taiwanese embassies worldwide in the coming days, may explain why MOFA announced last week that it would not seek a bid for membership at the U.N. General Assembly this year, but would still continue to promote Taiwan’s participation in U.N. related organizations.